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Thursday, November 15, 2012

The Terms Of The New Covenant Part 5 - Tell Others About Jesus

When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father – the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father – he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
Jn 15:26-27

Jesus expected, indeed required, that His followers tell others about Him. Part of being in a New Covenant relationship with God is getting other people in on the plan. The business world calls this network marketing. It is the most efficient form of advertising because satisfied customers are the best advocates for a product or service - they are naturally enthusiastic and their friends and family trust their judgement.

But sharing the Good News of salvation from eternal death is so much more than network marketing.

The morning after a became a Christian I was telling everyone. Most people simply gave me one of those skeptical looks - the suggestion that their thoughts were, "ok, she's finally flipped." My father took me out for coffee to try to establish whether I'd become a Mormon or a Moonie.

As far as I can tell, the words I said in those first few weeks had no positive impact at all.

Over the years, and not being a gifted evangelist, I have found less embarrassing ways to tell others about Jesus, While my husband has done sketchboard evangelism on street corners I have written, blogged and spoken in ladies' meetings. I have endeavoured to teach my children to pray. I have tried to offer practical help to those in need. And when the opportunity has come and I have been asked why I do the things I do, I have explained (1 Pet 3:15).

My favourite quote from St Francis of Assisi is:

Preach the Gospel at all times and when necessary use words.

I don't believe God expects all of us to be street preachers. In fact there have been times when I've wondered if God would rather some of us shut up occasionally - like the man in the pedestrian precinct I heard declaring loudly, "there is a difference between regenerate and unregenerate." Really? What on earth did that mean to the ordinary people of a small market town in South West England?

We are all uniquly made in the image of God and just as the Holy Spirit testifies about Jesus, so must we ... but in our own unique way. So I debate with Atheists, Jehovah's Witnesses and Muslims on Facebook while others in our church distribute newspapers, visit homes for the disabled, or speak to strangers on buses.

In our own ways each of us bears witness and God can use our abilities to reach different people and bring more into Covenant Relationship with Him.

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